15 Years Ago Today

[deane koontz]

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-50822362

[Tonge moor green jacket]

Not quite the same level, but 4 years ago closer to home.

Thanks Desmond.

 

[Mannyroader]

Went to Khao Lak in the South West of Thailand earlier this year. It took the brunt of the tsunami on Thai soil, though overall Aceh in Indonesia suffered much worse. Khao Lak has been rebuilt and is a lovely resort just an hour North from Phuket airport. The Tsunami Museum there is a very informative resource and a one hour film about the search for survivors would bring a tear to a glass eye.

[Sweep]

I've been to Sri Lanka a few times, and some of the tales I've heard from there are horrific, especially as a load of aid never actually got to them, as the Government at the time ring fenced the aid money and spent it building roads and infrastructure, instead of helping those who needed it

[Tonge moor green jacket]

15 minutes ago, Sweep said:

I've been to Sri Lanka a few times, and some of the tales I've heard from there are horrific, especially as a load of aid never actually got to them, as the Government at the time ring fenced the aid money and spent it building roads and infrastructure, instead of helping those who needed it

Food for another thread there.

[MancWanderer]

1 hour ago, Sweep said:

I've been to Sri Lanka a few times, and some of the tales I've heard from there are horrific, especially as a load of aid never actually got to them, as the Government at the time ring fenced the aid money and spent it building roads and infrastructure, instead of helping those who needed it

 

1 hour ago, Tonge moor green jacket said:

Food for another thread there.

It’s massively contentious 

Eldest finished her Psychology degree and went to Sri Lanka for 4 months to work in a mental health unit as a volunteer before starting work. There were fucking thousands of “displaced” suffering real problems due to families being wiped out and the orphans were enormously mentally affected and dumped in institutions - for the best possible reasons/intentions btw

Seen it before. A third world country suffers a catastrophe and a huge amount of aid pours in. Do you improve the infrastructure to ensure that the aid is used effectively or do you throw a load of aid at a collapsed system and hope that those in need benefit from it?

Its difficult. I bow to sweep as he’s been there and seen it but I hesitate to criticise without knowing the full story

 

[Traf]

Sweep, sadly, isn't wrong.

[royal white]

I was playing football on a beach in Koh Samui when it happened, we didn’t think anything of it at first as reports where just saying a small tsunami (not many people knew what a tsunami was) had hit parts of Thailand. It wasn’t until I rang home later that day asking my old man to stick a bet on the Wanderers when I realised how bad it was, he and my mam where in tears as they thought I was dead.

Ive spent a bit of time in Sri Lanka over the last 10 years, the Navy Base in Galle still has the marks on the gym wall where the water line reached, it must have been over 20ft high. As mentioned above a lot of money was spent in areas that didn’t need it. 

[kent_white]

26 minutes ago, royal white said:

I was playing football on a beach in Koh Samui when it happened, we didn’t think anything of it at first as reports where just saying a small tsunami (not many people knew what a tsunami was) had hit parts of Thailand. It wasn’t until I rang home later that day asking my old man to stick a bet on the Wanderers when I realised how bad it was, he and my mam where in tears as they thought I was dead.

Ive spent a bit of time in Sri Lanka over the last 10 years, the Navy Base in Galle still has the marks on the gym wall where the water line reached, it must have been over 20ft high. As mentioned above a lot of money was spent in areas that didn’t need it. 

Thank God you were on that side of the country!